Burglar-proof safe or vault.



H. W. HELLER. BURGLAR P ROOF SAFE 0R VAULT.

1,2i58567w APPLICATION flLED JULY 17. I91]- Patented Mar. 5,

4 SHEETSSHEET 1.

INVENTUH JEQrr I/ flffffiilar WITNESSES A TTORHEKS H. W. HELLER.

BURGLAH PROOF SAFE 0R VAULT.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 17. 1917- Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

4 SHEETSSHEET Z INVENTOR- fiarvy z:

ATTORNEKS WITNESSES Z H. W. HELLER.

BUBGLAR PROOF SAFE 0R VAULT.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11. 19w.

{358,56? Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHIFT 3.

mmmzs Mm'rim H. W. HELLER.

BUHGLAR PROOF SAFE 0R VAULT.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 11. I917.

1,253,567. Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

Hanna: w. HELLER; or ron'rnann, caisson.

B'URGLAB-PROOF SAFE 0R VAULT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

Application filed July 17', 1917.. Serial No. 131,038.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HARRY W. HELLER, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Portland, in the countyof Multnomah and State of Oregon, have made certain new and usefulImprovements in Burglar-Proof Sales or Vaults, of which the following isa specification.

My invention relates to improvements in burglar proof safes or vaultsand consists in the combinations, constructions and arrangementshereinafter described and claimed.

The present invention is a division in part of a prior applicationSerial No. 51997 filed tdeptember 22, 1915. In said prior applicationmeans was disclosed for locking the doors of the safe or vault and thepresent invention is an improvement in the specific form of lockingmeans as well as in the provision of auxiliary dead locking means whichare controlled by combination locks.

An object of my invention is to provide means which is dependent upon atime lock and an automatic device for dead locking the means whichprevents the opening oi the doors of the safe or vault.

it further object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary means fordead locking the door retaining means when the time lock and automaticdevice are in position to permit the release of the door retainingmeans. A. further object of my invention is to provide a novel means foroperating certain counter-weight door retaining means Other objects andadvantages will appear in the following specification and the novelteatures of the device will be particularly pointed out in the appendedclaims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming part ofthis application in which- Figure l is a. horizontal section through thedevice.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. t is a vertical section on the line H of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the counterweights.

Fig 7 is a perspective view of the time lock and automatic device andthe look ing means connected therewith.

Fig. 8 is a face view of the safe or vault.

Fig. 9 is a rear view of the combination locks and V Fig. 10 is asection on the line 10-1O of Fig. 9.

Referring now particularly to Fig. 1, I have shown therein a casing 1,which may be made of steel or any suitable material and which has at therear thereof a hinged grating or door 2. At 8 I have shown bracketscarried by the casing. Those brackets form journals for the hinges ofthe doors 5. The latter are stepped at their edges as shown at 5 toengage recesses 6 in the walls of the casing or jambs when the doors arein their closed position. These doors swing inwardly in the interior oi.the casing 1 as shown. The means for operating the doors are alike foreach door and a description of one will sutlice for both. It will benoted, that on the exterior of the casing are hand wheels 7. Each handwheel has a shaft 8 which is provided with a bevel gear 9 arranged toengage a gear 10 on a stub shaft 11. The gear 10 engages in turn a gear12 which meshes with a bevel gear 13 on a shaft let. This shalt 14- hasa gear 15 mesh ing with a gear 16 on a shaft 17. It will be obvious thatwhen the hand wheel 7 is turned the shat't 17 will also be turned. Onthe shaft 17 is a pinion 18 which is arranged to engage a rack 19 whichis secured to movable counter-weights 20 and 21 in the mannerhereinafter described, the arrangement being such that when the handwheel 7 is turned the pinion 18 will also be turned and the door 5 willbe closed or opened by the movement of the pinion along the rack 19depending upon which way the wheel is turned. This feature was set forthin my prior patent application aforesaid Referring now to Fig. 6, I haveshown therein an upper member 20 already mentioned, and a lower member21. Secured to the upper member 20 are side members 20 and 20". whilesecured to the lower member 21 are side members 21 and 21 respectively.The members 20 and 21 together with side members 20 and 20 formcounterbalanceweights. The side members are provided with guides 20* andE21 respectively for guidingthe two sets of weights in their movements.In Fig. 3, I have shown the means by which these weights may be moved.This comprises a hand wheel 23 which is disposed on a shaft 24.- bearinga a slidable locking bar ea a guide for the counter-balance parts when"they go up or down.

The lower member 21 has a pair of slots 21 which are arranged to receivethe lugs 30' of a slidable locking bar 30 which is dis posed beneath themember 21 a. shown in Fig. 5. The sli'dable locking bar 30 is for thepurpose of dead locking the members and 21 which in turn serve to retainthe doors 5 in their locked position as will be eX- plained later. Thelocking bar is controlled by means oi a time lock and automatic device.The time lock and automatic device are of any suitable type. In Fig. 7,I have shown the time loclr at 31 and the automatic device at 32. Thetrigger 31 of the automatic device is arranged to be engaged by a bellcrank lever 33 which is pivotally mounted at, 3%, and which is connectedwith a link 35. A stop 36 limits the movement of the bell crank lever.The link 35 extends downwardly through a guide 36 see F i 7 andterminates immediately above an arm 38 carried by the lower,counter-balanced member .21. The automatic device controls a lever 39which is pivoted at 40, and whose lower end engages a lever 4-1 pivotedat 42 and connected at 43 with one end of the slidable loclringbar 30.

' a similarly inwardly movable member L5 these being common in locks ofthis type. These two movable members and 45* are connected by means of alink 46 which is slotted at T7 to receive a pin l8 carried by Th latterresigned to extend underneath the upper side member 20 of tiecounter-balance weights so as to prevent the movement of thecountor-balance weights together until such time as the bar i9 iswithdrawn. As will be seen from Fig. 10, this bar 49 isheld by plates 50on each side thereof.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, theoperation thereof maybe readily understood.

Fig. 1 shows the doors in their open position in which they .are swunginside of the casing Prior to the closingof the doors a foot bridgeconsisting of three hinged sections 51, 52 and see 3, may be folded,

essee? the section 51 upon the section 52 and the two latter being swungback and resting against the grating or door 2 as disclosed in my priorpatent aforesaid. The .members 20 and 21 are in the position shown. inFig. 3, that is to say, out of the way oi the doors. The time lock andautomatic" device are wound and the wheels 7 are manipulated to closethe doors in the manner described. The wheel 23 may now be operated so;as to bring the members 20 and 21 in position behind the doors, thesepositions being shown in dotted linesin Fig. 3,so as to prevent theopening of the doors. The forward move ment of the counter-weight 21causes the arm 38 to engage the rod 35 thus swinging the bell cranklever'against the trigger 31 and tripping the automatic device whichthrusts the slidable locking member 30 into its locking position, thatis to say, out of registration with the openings 21 thus dead lockingthe counter-weights and preventing the opening of the safe or vaultuntil such time as the time lock 31 oil the automatic device which willshift the slidable locking member 30 into the, position shown in Fig. 5,thereby permitting the unlocking oi the vault or safe.

At times it may be desirable to close and lock the vault for a fewminutes or for few hours during the day, without setting the time lockand automatic device, and this may be done by means of thecombinationlocks, for when these are set the slidable bar 49 is brought beneath themember 20 thus dead locking the counter-weights which retain the doorsin their closed position until such time as the locks are manipulated towithdraw the slide 49 as already explained.

It will be noted, that the time lock and automatic device are locatedwithin the vault. The drilling of the outer casing of the vault isineiiective as tar as opening the vault is concerned, because of thefact that these devices are not in a position to be tarnpered with evenshould the burglars manage to drill through the outer casing.

I claim:

1. In a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tothe casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, a pair ofopposed counter-weights disposed within the casing and movable towardand away from each other, the movement toward each other serving tobring them in position to lock the doors and means'ior dead locking themovable counter-weights, said means comprising a slidable locltingmember dis posed underneath one of said counterweights and adapted to bebrought into position for preventingthe movement of the a pair ofopposed counter-weights disposed. within the casing and movable towardand away from each other, the movement toward each other serving tobring them in position to lock the doors and means for dead locking themovable counter weights, said means comprising a slidable locking memberdisposed underneath one of said counterweights and adapted to be broughtinto position for preventing the movement of the latter, and means formoving said slidable locking device automatically, said means comprisinga time lock and automatic device, and levers connecting said automaticdevice with said slidable locking device.

3. in a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tothe casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, a pair o'l?opposed counter-weights disposed within the casing and movable towardand away from each other, the movement toward each other serving tobring them in position to lock the doors and means for dead locking themovable coui'iter-weights, said means comprising a slidable lockingmember disposed underneath one of said counterweights and adapted to bebrought into position for preventing the movement of the latter, andmeans for moving said slidable locking device automatically, said meanscomprising a time lock and automatic device, levers connecting said automatic device with said slidable locking device, and means carried by oneof: said cormter-weights for tripping the automatic device.

t. in a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tothe casing and a1 'anged to swing inwardly into the casing, a pair ofopposed counter-weights disposed within the casing and movable towardand away from each other, the movement toward each. other serving tobring them in position to lock the doors and means :tor dead locking themovable counterwciglrts disposed underneath one of said counter-weightsand adapted to be brought into position for preventing the movement ofthe latter, and means for moving said slidable locking deviceautomatically, said means comprising a time lock and autoimatic" device,lovers connecting said auto matic device with said slidable lockingdevice, means carried by one of said counterweights for trlp 'iing' theautomatic device, said tripping means comprising an arm can ried by saidcounter-weight, a slidable rod arranged to be engaged by the arm and alever connected to said rod and arranged to engage a portion of theautomatic de vice during the movement of the rod.

In a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tosaid casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, means forlocking the doors, said means comprising a pair of counter-weights,means for moving said counter-weights toward and away from each other,said means comprising a pinion and rack portions carried by each of saidcounter-Weights and arranged to engage said pinions on opposite sidesthereof, and means for operating said pinions, the movement oi? saidcounterweights serving to bring them behind the closed doors therebylocking the doors in position.

6. In a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tosaid casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, means forlocking the doors, said means comprising a pair of counter-weights,means for moving said counter-weights, toward and away from each other,said means comprising a pinion and rack portions carried by each oi?said counter-weights and arranged to engage said pinions on oppositesides thereof, means for operating said pinions, the movement of saidcounter-Weights serving to bring them behind the closed doors therebylocking the doors in position, a dead locking device, and a time lockand automatic device for actuating said dead locking device to permitthe movement of the counter-weights at a predetermined time.

7. In a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tosaid casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, means forlocking the doors, said means comprising a pair of counter-weights,means for moving said counter-weights, toward and away from each othersaid means comprising a pinion and rack portions carried by each of saidcounter-weights and arranged. to engage said pinions on opposite sidesthereof, means for operating said pinions, the movement of saidcounter-weights serving to bring them behind the closed doors therebylocking the doors in position, a dead locking device. and a time lockand automatic device for actuating said dead locking device to permitthe movement of the counter-weights at a predetermined time, and meansfor dead locking the counterweights independently of said last nameddead. locking means.

8. In a safe or vault construction, a casing, a pair of doors hinged tosaid casing and arranged to swing inwardly into the casing, means forlocking the doors, said means comprising a pair of counter-weights,means for moving said counter-weights, toward and away from each other,said means comprising a pinion and rack portions carried by each of saidcounter-weights and arranged to engage said pinions on opposite sidesthereof, means for operating said pinions, the movement of saidcounter-weights serving to bring them behind the closed doors therebylocking the doors in position, a dead locking device, and a time lockand automatic device for actuating sairl dead nmvement of said lock andarranged to locking device to permit the movement of el'lgage one ofsaid countevweights to pre- 1*. the counter-weights at a predetermined"vent the movement of said Weights until time, means for dead lockingthe Counter Withdrawn by the manipulation of the locks.

Weights independently of said last named HARRY HELLER. dead lockingmeans, said last named dead Witnesses: locking means comprising a pairof combi- KARL HERBRING, nation locks, 21 siidabie be]? actuated by theE. B. SEABROOK.

Gopiu of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washingtomll. G.

